The HOSTA report aims at providing relevant information for hoteliers as well as investors, bankers, project developers, municipal authorities, industry organisations and further anybody with an interest in the middle and upper segments of the Benelux Hotel industry.

The 28th edition of the annual report contains the results of the Benelux hotel industry in 2004. The hotel industry has experienced a relatively stable year. Although there were no major catastrophes for the tourism sector in the Benelux, the continuing poor economy maintained its influence on the hotel industry. The result of this is that occupancies have recovered slightly, but at the expense of the average room rates.

The 222 participating Dutch hotels of the HOSTA 2005, with a total of almost 30,000 rooms, represent 45 of the total available rooms in these segments in The Netherlands. Additionally, the report contains data on some 7,500 rooms in Belgium and Luxemburg.

For 2005, the outlook is one of hesitant optimism. Although the economy is still not actually growing, every expert continues to assure as it will do so in the near future. Based on this, most hoteliers indicate they expect occupancies and average room rates to increase in the coming years.

Last year, Horwath Consulting selected the relationship between the hotel industry and the airline industry as the "Hospitality Theme". As part of this theme, this report continues last year's segment on airport hotels.

One of the positive influences for the coming years is expected to be the increased incoming tourism from new markets such as Eastern Europa and Asia. In particularly China is expected to become an important country of origin for the hotel industry. With more than 1.3 billion inhabitants and a fast growing economy, China is generating more outbound tourism every year. Recently, it has become easier for Chinese tourists to obtain a visa for The Netherlands. It is expected that the hotel industry will be able to greatly benefit from these developments. Already, existing hotels are preparing themselves for more Chinese guests. At the same time, many hotel developers are working on projects that are aimed specifically at Chinese hotel guests.

Still, many questions remain. Exactly how many Chinese guests can we expect? How will we get these tourists to visit The Netherlands, and in particularly how will we get them into our hotels? And what kind of services and treatment will they expect when they do visit here? To answer these questions and more, Horwath Consulting has selected Chinese Incoming Tourism as the Hospitality Theme for the coming year. This report contains a segment devoted to the subject of the Chinese market segment in existing hotels. Next year, Horwath Consulting plans to publish a special report that will focus on all relevant subjects regarding Chinese Incoming Tourism.

ING BANK Head Office, Amsterdam, has been a partner in this survey since the presentation of the 20th HOSTA report. We are proud and grateful to have their continued financial support for the production and presentation of the HOSTA 2005.

The complete table of content can be found here:
http://www.horwath.nl/english/statis_hostaindex.html

You can order the complete HOSTA 2005 report by filling out the order form:
http://www.horwath.nl/english/orderform.html